Traditionally, the possibility exists for monitoring computer equipment by means of dedicated tools enabling an operator to be informed, at a given moment, about the status of a piece of equipment or set of equipment, via a supervisory console.
These supervisory tools are not deployed nowadays for monitoring a group of workstations, but rather for servers or network equipment, often fewer in number within the business.
Such administration systems are suitable for monitoring events occurring in real time in large-scale computer systems. In particular, they use an event-capturing principle based on the SNMP protocol (Simple Network Management Protocol). This communication protocol enables the administrators of computer populations to manage network equipment, monitor and diagnose network problems and hardware remotely. Numerous administration and monitoring mechanisms exist which use this protocol.
Other remote administration possibilities are likewise offered by specific applications, such as the so-called “VNC” (Virtual Network Computing) applications, which enable one to connect to remote computers and to “take control” of same in order to perform maintenance tasks. However, such applications require the active involvement of a computer system administrator in order to carry out the operations in question.